Transfer mechanism for cigarettes



Dec. 15, 1959 M. POLLMANN 2,917,156

TRANSFER MECHANISM FOR CIGARETTES Filed Dec. 26, 1957 v 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 FIG. I

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TRANSFER MECHANISM FOR CIGARETTES Filed Dec. 26, 1957 I5 Sheets-Sheet 2 Dec. 15, 1959 M. POLLMANN 2,917,156

TRANSFER MECHANISM FOR CIGARETTES Filed Dec. 26, 1957 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 United States Patent 2,917,156 TRANSFER MECHANISM FOR CIGARETIES Max Pollmann, Hamburg-Bergedorf, Germany, assignor to Kurt Korber & Co. K.G., Hamburg-Bergedorf, Germany Application December 26, 1957, Serial No. 705,430 Claims priority, application Germany January 22, 1957 4 Claims. (Cl. 19824) This invention relates to cigarette making machines, and more specifically to a device for delivering cigarettes conveyed from a continuous wrapper type cigarette making machine in longitudinal direction to a transverse conveyor, i.e. to an apparatus conveying transversely to said longitudinal direction, in particular to a grooved drum of a filter mouthpiece attaching machine.

For this purpose, deflectors have already become known in the art which are movable transversely to the direction of the string of cigarettes leaving the machine. Such deflectors include, for example, vaned wheels with one or more vanes, which rotate continuously and knock the cigarettes out of the direction of the string. Such vaned wheels rotate with a constant peripheral speed. They cannot, as. far as their speed is concerned, be adjusted to the different speeds of the cigarette making machine and the transverse conveyor. Thus, the cigarettes are subjected to undesirable knocks which result in a considerable amount of short tobacco.

In addition, for braking the cigarettes knocked out transversely to the direction of the string, braking devices, such as springs, rubber rollers, or the like, are

necessary which are arranged between the deflector andthe transverse conveyor. These braking devices subject the cigarettes to additional stressing and change the position of thecigarette paper seam, especially in the case of round cigarettes, by turning them about their own axes. This turning movement varies, because owing to the struc ture of the cigarette and the braking action not being absolutely uniform, it is not possible to obtain a reliable uniform control. When the cigarettes are delivered to a filter mouthpiece applying machine, it is always a re quirement of the cigarette manufactures that the cigarette paper seam shall coincide with the seam of the filter connecting leaf. This was hitherto possible only in the case of filter cigarette making machines with longitudinal feed, but not in the case of machines of the drum type in which the cigarettes are conveyed transversely to the longitudinal axis thereof.

To overcome these disadvantages it is, therefore, the object of the present invention to provide in a continuous wrapper type cigarette making machine deflecting means which at the same time serve as delivery device moved with varying speed through the intermediary of cooperating gears in such a manner that on passing the cigarettes to a transverse conveyor, e.g. the grooved drum of a filter mouthpiece attaching machine, it has attained about the conveying speed of said transverse conveyor.

. as the pushing surface engages a cigarette, while it ceases to act when the cigarette is placed on the transverse con- According to one of the principal features of the invention, the movement of the deflecting means, after. engaging a cigarette, may be first accelerated beyond the conveying speed of the transverse conveyor and then retarded to the conveying speed thereof.

According to another feature of the invention, all known deflecting means moving transversely to the conveying direction of the cigarette making machine can be driven according to the invention, if the drive is transmitted through the intermediary of a suitable gear, for example a cam or eccentric gear.

In a preferred form of construction the deflecting means consist of a holder and a push member carried thereby, and the holder for said push member is mounted on two crank-disks in such-a manner that it is rotatable on one 2,917,156 Patented Dec. 15, 1959 crank disk and rotatable and slidable on the other crank disk. By this means, the push member of the deflecting means can carry out any desired, for example elliptical movement and the total length of the necessary path of the push member for a working cycle need not correspond to the circumferential length of a circle the arc of which is necessary for the path of movement of the push member.

To enable simple adjustment and readjustment of the push member, the holder is mounted on the crank disks in such a manner that it is adjustable in all directions and can be fixed in any desired position.

To ensure that each cigarette is held reliably in the desired position and to produce a braking effect on the largest possible surface area of the cigarette, the push member has on its free end a pushing surface of a pro file corresponding to the shape of the cigarette.

The push member with its profiled pushing surface engaging the cigarette, therefore represents not only the deflecting means, as in the known devices of this type, but also the delivery device. 7

If the braking effect of the push member is to be increased and the cigarette is to be held more securely on the push member, this can be effected by suction air acting on the pushing surface of the push member. This suction air may be so controlled that it becomes effective as soon veyor. The control of said operation can be effected in a simple manner by known suctionducts which are provided on the rotating parts and periodically closed.

If it is desired that the cigarettes be placed tangentially in the grooves of the drum and if this is not possible with the existing relative arrangement of the string of cigarettes and the grooved drum without slightly turning each cigarette, the pushing surface of the push member is arranged displaced through a desired angle with respect to the position of the cigarette in the string. In deflecting the cigarettes, these then turn through the desired angle until they are in full contact with the pushing surface of the push member. In order to prevent any change in the position especially of oval cigarettes after being placed by the push member in the grooves of the drum with their seams in the same positions, and to provide a reference plane for determining the point where the push member is to be reversed from forward to rearward movement, each groove of the grooved drum, serving as transverse conveyor, has opposite wall portions extending at appropriate distances parallel to the axial radial plane passing through the center of the groove.

In this manner, the invention offers the notable advantage that both round and also oval cigarettes can be delivered to the transverse conveyor with their seamsv in uniform position so that cigarettes can be produced in which the seam of the cigarette paper and the seam of the connecting leaf of the filter mouthpiece coincided.

A preferred embodiment of the invention is illustrated diagrammatically by way of example in the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 shows a delivery device with reflecting means, and an associated grooved drum, the deflecting means being in contact with a cigarette;

Fig. 2 shows the deflecting means during the transfer of the cigarette to the grooved drum;

Fig. 3 is a view similar to Fig. 1, but further illustratinga gear transmission for driving the deflecting means; and

Fig. 4 is a vertical section taken substantially on line IVIV in Fig. 3.

Fig. 1 shows a machine bed 1 of a cigarette making machine of the continuous wrapper type with a cigarette conveyor band 2 on which cigarettes are longitudinally fedto a delivery point. Above the machine bed 1 a crank, disk gear comprising crank disks. 4 and 5 with rotatable crank pins 6 and 7, is arranged transversely and vertically to the machine bed 1. A guide sleeve 8 isfixed on the crank pin 6.and a, clamping. sleevev 9 on the, crank pin,7. A holder 11} and a push member 14: carried thereby, is guided and held in said sleeves Sand 9. Toobtain common drive, the crank disks rand 5 are positively interconnected by spur wheels 11 and 12. On the end of the holder 10. directed towards the-cigarettes 3, a pivotbearing .13,is,provided in which the pushmember 14 is oscillatable and fixable (Figs. 1 and 2). The push member 14 can consist, as shown in all the figures of the. drawings, of, an upper part and anexchangeable lower part14a havinga pushing surface 14b. The pushing surface 14b has a profile whichcorresponds to the cigarettes actually. handled. For the reception of the cigarettesa, grooved drum15cooperating with an associated filter applying machine. (not shown) is located adjacent andalongside the conveyor band 2 and has a driving shaft 16, extending parallel to the conveyor band 2; i

For delivering the cigarettes 3 to the .drum 15, the push member 14 is moved along a curved pathas. indicated at 17 in Fig. 2. The push member 14 places each cigarette 3'into one of .a series of trough-shaped grooves 18 uniformly, formed in the shell 15a of the drum 15 in correspondence with the associated filter mouthpiece applying machine. of the arrow Aindicated in Figs. 1, 2 and 3. When the pushmember 14 has guided acigarette 3' into position 3 where thecigarette contactsthe. groove 18 at 18 adjawhich have been freshly fed in the meantime by the'cigarette conveyor band 2, engages them, brings them along the path 17 from the cigarette conveyor band at an accelerated speed and then slows down to deliver the cigarettes to the nextreceiving'groove 18 at. the peripheral speed of the drum 15, this working cycle taking place in synchronism with the cigarette making machine. 7

To hold the cigarettes securely on the push members 14, longitudinal suction ducts 25 may be provided in the lower parts 14a of thepush members 14, as shown in Fig. 4, and lead to openings provided in the pushing surfaces 14b. Flexiblehoses 26 connect said duets with a suction pump, not shown, and control means may be provided by means of which the suction air becomes etfective only when the pushing surfaces engage the cigarettes, Theshaft 16 of the grooved drum 15 isdriven in known manner by the cigarette making machine through theintermediary of transmission gearing (not shown) The drive is then transmitted from a gear 19 keyed on the shaft 16 to a gear 20 driving a pinion 21 which is rigidly connected with a gear 22. The gear 22 meshes with a pinion .23 rigidly connected with a gear 24-which finally transmits the drive to the spur wheel 11 as;shown* in Fig. 3. The ratio of transmission is so chosen that the spurwheels 11 and 12 perform one revolution while the grooved drum 15 moves on one groove.

. from the above detailed description of the invention; 1t is believed that the construction will at once be appan,

ent, and while there is herein shown and described a preferred embodlment of the invention it is nevertheless to beunderstood that minor changes may be madetherei in without departing from the spirit and scope of thev invention as claimed. V

I claim:

1. In a cigarette making machine in whicl 1 the ciga w.

The drum 15 rotates in the direction to one side of a grooved conveyor drum, a transfer device arranged above said conveyor pathway including a deflecting foot member presented to the upwardly moving side of said grooved conveyor drum movable in a direction transversely of said pathway to feed cigarettes laterally into the grooves of said drum, a support forsaid foot member arranged above said conveyor pathway hav ing its lower end pivoted to said foot member, and a pair of spaced rotary discs having eccentric pins connected to saidsupportmember and arranged out of phase so that rotation of said discs-will impart an'elliptical movement to said foot member in a direction toward said grooved drum and transversely with respect to said conveyor pathway.

2. In a cigarette'making machine in which the'cigarettes are fed along a longitudinal conveyor pathway to one side ofa grooved conveyor drum, a transfer de vice arranged above said conveyor pathwayand presented to-the upwardly moving side of said groovedcon veyor drum, said transfer-device being operable to move transverselythereof toward and away from said grooved drum to discharge cigarettes-moving along said conveyor pathwayanddeposit the-same in the grooves of'said drum, a transfer footmember, a vertical supporting rod forsaid foot member arranged above said conveyor path- Way, a pair of intermeshing disc members supported above said pathway, and eccentric pins on said disc members arranged out of phase and connected to said supporting rod, whereby rotation of said disc members will movesaid foot member through an elliptical pathway 'to transfer cigarettes from said conveyorpathway' transversely and into the grooves of said drum.

3. In a cigarette making machine in'which the cigarettes are fed-along a longitudinal conveyor pathway to one side of agrooved conveyor drum, a transfer devicemounted above said conveyor pathway and'presented to the upwardly moving side of said conveyor drum for delivering cigarettes from said conveyor path'- way transversely toward said rotary drum, a'foot'memher on said transfer device, said foot member being provided' with an-arcuately curved cigarette engaging .portion extending downwardly over one side of the ciga-' rettes, a supporting rod for said foot member mounted above said conveyor pathway, a mind rotary members mounted, adjacent said rod adapted to. rotate in inter-' meshing-relation an eccentric pin on each of said rotary members, means on said rod connecting said eccentric pins to said rod such that rotaryrnotion of said rotary members =in'opposite directions will impart an elliptical movement to'said foot member and transfer cigarettes from said conveyor path to said grooved drum.

4. In a cigarette making machine in which the ciga rettes are fed along a longitudinal. conveyor pathway to'one side .of a grooved conveyor drum, a transfer device mounted above said conveyor pathway and pre sentedto the upwardly moving side of said grooved" rotary-drum, a foot member on said transfer device, a vertical supporting rod arranged above said conveyor pathway having its lower end pivotally connected to said foot member, a pair of vertically disposed rotary gear members adjacent said rod and mounted to rotate on an axis parallel withthe rotary grooved drum axis, eccentric pins arranged out of phase on said rotary gear members connected to said vertical rod such thatrotation of said gear members, in opposite directions will move said foot member through an elliptical pathwayto transfer cigarettes laterally and upwardly in the direction of drum movement, and suction means associated with" said foot member to hold cigarettes in position on the underside thereof during saidelliptical movement.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 

